Yes, it is alright to say she is a beautiful woman. By any objective measure she is. She also has an amazing body, thanks to rigorous workouts and having been a skier for most of her life.

The pose at least resembles the tuck stance skiers like Vonn take when barrelling down the hill. It's exaggerated, of course, but not gratuitously so. It's not as if SI put her in a bikini in a Whistler hot tub.

Sure she is an athlete and not a sex symbol. Sure Sports Illustrated rarely has athletes on the cover. Sure she does look sexy, so what? Tom Brady is a super quarterback and super sexy. Scott Brown, Massachusetts' new Senator is sexy. In fact in college he posed n**e for a magazine. He's good looking and a Senator. So what?